Teams See New Inspection Process

BRISTOL, Tenn. - At the Car of Tomorrow test at Bristol Motor Speedway, NASCAR was present to inspect the cars before they rolled out on the track. And although the lengthy inspection was not official, it was to help educate the teams for the upcoming "COT" races.

"We are here more as a courtesy to the teams and help them understand the process so when we come back and it’s time to run the event that everybody is a lot more knowledgeable on everything that it involves and all the parts and pieces that it entails," said John Darby, NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series Director. "With that being said, there’s an obvious reason why we are spending 30 to 40 minutes on each car for each organization, because we are taking the time to walk all the way through A to Z on the new template process."

One step in the Car of Tomorrow inspection process is a new single unit that hangs from a scaffolding-like structure. This unit applies multiple templates at one time instead of each one by hand.

All of the chassis' and roll cages that were certified at NASCAR's R&D Center will now be verified at the track through radio frequency IDs. Again, the process will eventually be faster becuase it will be electronic instead of manual.

NASCAR is slated to open the inspection process one day earlier for both the Bristol and Martinsville "COT" races to get teams situated with the new official process.

"If you look back to the season between 2002 and 2003 when we brought out the aero-match templates, we did a very similar type of a deal," Darby said. "We went to Rockingham and opened up a day early for simply nothing but inspection."